Āl ʿImrān 3:37

Fa-taqabbalahā rabbuhā bi-qabūlin ḥasanin wa anbatahā nabātan ḥasanan wa kaffalahā Zakariyyā, kullamā dakhala ʿalayhā Zakariyya'l-miḥrāba wajada ʿindahā rizqā, qāla yā Maryamu annā laki hādhā, qālat huwa min ʿindi'llāh, inna'llāha yarzuqu man yashāʾu bi-ghayri ḥisāb

"Her Lord accepted her with a good acceptance and made her grow as a good plant grows, and He gave Zechariah charge of her. Whenever Zechariah entered upon her in the sanctuary he found provision beside her. 'Mary! Where does this come to you from?' he said. And she said: 'It is from God. Truly God provides for whom He wills without reckoning.'"

The root ن-ب-ت: a plant's coming up out of the ground. Form IV: anbata — to make grow, to raise.

And the construction of the comparison must be recorded, and the lexicographers dwell on it: the object of the verb is a human being, but its verbal noun is the verbal noun of a plant (nabātan). In Arabic this is called the absolute object (mafʿūl muṭlaq), and it reinforces the verb.

That is, the sentence does not say "He raised her well"; it says "He made her grow as one makes a plant grow."

I record this as my own reading, and it is not binding: the comparison carries the sense that the growing happened of itself and unseen. A plant is not seen in the moment of its growing; whoever looks finds it each time a little further grown. And this picture agrees with what follows in the verse: every time Zechariah entered he found something new.

The word order must be recorded: kullamā — "whenever". This particle conveys repetition, and although the two verbs that follow it are both perfect, the sentence conveys continuance.

That is, the scene is not a one-time event; it is a repeated state.

ٱلْمِحْرَاب — root ح-ر-ب. The lexicographers differ over the origin of the word; it is commonly explained as the foremost, highest or innermost part of a place. The present-day sense of miḥrāb (the niche where the one leading the prayer stands) is a usage that settled later and cannot be read back into the verse. I record this explicitly.

The word occurs twice in the sūra — at 37 (beside Mary) and at 39 (Zechariah himself there). This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra, and it binds the two scenes to the same place.

The scene consists of a question and an answer, and the word order of both is worth recording:

I record this as an observation: the question is looking for an intermediary; the answer puts nothing in between. And the last sentence of the answer comes as a rule: inna'llāha yarzuqu man yashāʾu bi-ghayri ḥisāb.

And this sentence is word for word the same as the last sentence of verse 27 of the sūra: wa tarzuqu man tashāʾu bi-ghayri ḥisāb (27) — inna'llāha yarzuqu man yashāʾu bi-ghayri ḥisāb (37).

The same sentence, one in a prayer and one in a scene. This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra. I record this as my own reading, and it is not binding: what is said in the twenty-seventh verse as a principle is shown in the thirty-seventh as having come about in a room. The sūra states the principle and gives its instance ten verses later.

And in the next verse this scene will have a consequence: Zechariah will pray.